Organic by John Patrick / Resort 2014

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The official inspiration for John Patrick this season was the New York street artist Jimmy Mirikitani whose whimsical cat paintings, “make art not war” mantra, and extraordinary life journey (from Sacramento, to Hiroshima, to an internment camp in California, to Jackson Pollock’s kitchen as a cook), are the subject of the documentary film, The Cats of Mirikitani. But it wasn’t the movie that started it for Patrick. “I discovered Jimmy in Washington Square Park in the late nineties, and he just sort of tugged at my heartstrings,” the designer explained at this morning’s presentation. “He was living on the street, and I mean, he was eccentric, but he wasn’t tricking himself out just to sell things, and I was struck by how honest and pure his work was.” So Patrick bought some of it, and now he’s taking Mirikitani’s colors and applying them to his clothes. “My palette goes straight back to his,” Patrick said, pointing to the pale pinks he used consistently throughout resort (the same pink that Mirikitani painted into one cat’s fur coat, for example).

In terms of messaging though, the collection’s sixteen looks mixed sexiness (triangle bra tops peeking out from under open-weave sweaters) with sportiness (numbered uniform-jersey tees layered under cardigans and embroidered frocks). And, because it wouldn’t be an Organic collection without a reference to food growing, there’s a cute baseball tee for the “FARM” team, paired with a recycled cotton boardshort and a relaxed, Mirikitani-green anorak. “I don’t know that people know how much we care about jackets—but we do!” Patrick said, pointing enthusiastically to another anorak, and then to a boxier, sacklike recycled oxford cotton coat that’s “meant to stand away from the body.”

What stood out most, however, were the embroidered pieces, especially the dress and boardshort done in a large-scale cross-stitch. “I love that it’s exactly like grandma’s, but blown-up,” Patrick said. “It’s like the things you see at a gift shop, but bigger, and therefore new.”